Freedom House has published the “Freedom in the World 2016” report which introduces the political rights and civil liberties situation in 195 countries and 15 disputed areas of the world from January 1 of 2015 to December 31 of 2015. The report divides the countries and disputed areas into three groups: free, partly free and not free.
This report of the Freedom House, as well as the publications from the previous years, has also addressed the freedom and democracy-related tendencies in the Republics of Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh. According to the report, Armenia is a partly free country. It has received 46 points on the scale of 100 points in which 0 is the worst point and 100 is the best. The neighboring Georgia is ahead of Armenia by almost 20 points (it has 64 points). Azerbaijan has fallen into the group of not free countries with its 16 points.
It is worth mentioning that Armenia has once again been mentioned as the freest country in the Eurasian Economic Union, leaving Kyrgyzstan behind with its 38 points (this country has also fallen into the group of partly free countries). Naturally, Belarus, Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation have been classified as not free countries. Notably, Belarus has a freedom indicator of 17, Russia – 22, and Kazakhstan – 24.
It is worth mentioning that Nagorno Karabagh’s freedom indicator is lower than that of Armenia, it is 33. Anyway, it also has the “partly free” status. Moreover, according to the report, the Nagorno Karabagh Republic has a worse freedom situation than Abkhazia (42 points) but better than the other post-Soviet unrecognized republics and disputed areas. South Ossetia (11 points), Transdniestria (24 points) and Krimea (9 points) are considered not free. Nevertheless, the Nagorno Karabagh Republic has room for growth in order to reach Somaliland with its 40 points.
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In order of comparison, let us mention that Armenia, in its turn, has worse indicator compared to countries like Bangladesh (49 points) and Burkina Faso (59 points). And, of course, there is no room for comparing Armenia with small post-Soviet countries like Lithuania (91 points), Latvia (86 points) or Estonia (94 points).
Anna Pambukhchyan
“Union of Informed Citizens”